Features

Industrial capital spending continues to increase, according to a forecast published this month by IMS Research, and when the results are in for 2012 it will have risen 6.8% over the 2011 level. That study also predicts that total industrial capital spending in the Americas will pass $1 trillion by 2015: oil-and-gas is the sector drawing the most investment, more then one-third of all spending, IMS reported....More

Foundry overall is a slow-growth market. Generally, the industry is very competitive, leading to low profitability and financial instability for many foundries. Nonetheless, long-term sustained and profitable growth is achieved by some management teams even in this challenging environment. How do they do it?...More

Sometimes the answers to long-standing questions are right under our noses, even if they are not recognized as such. And some solutions to problems come from unexpected sources. Who would have expected that experts at Oregon State University's College of Forestry would propose a solution to the problem of noxious fumes emitted by binder chemicals used by sand casting foundries to form molds and cores? Or, that their recommendation would be such a simple one?...More

Metalcast S.A. de C.V. is an investment caster with 200 employees in Puebla, Mexico, that is casting increasingly complex parts in more challenging alloys. Stefan Plotz, an engineering consultant, worked with Metalcast engineers to reduce the proportion of rejects in the production of a valve body. "Computer simulation of the casting process helps understand the root cause of defects and evaluate the performance of modified designs without having to build tooling," Plotz emphasized....More

Commentary

Typically, when a year begins to wind down I work to draft a timely column, often drawing on my own philosophy that time is an artificial construct and years are no more (or less) relevant to gauging our success or failure than months or days, etc. But, just before time began to run short this year, I spent an hour with a man on the brink of retirement – and that has shifted my perspective....More